OneRepublic Donate New Single Proceeds To Save The Children

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For their first single off their forthcoming album, OneRepublic told CBS Local that they wanted to serve a greater purpose than having another radio hit.

“Feel Again” hit radio airwaves yesterday and the band admits the song has a different flavor than fans may expect.

“The song itself was kind of a departure for anything we’ve ever done before on every level,” frontman Ryan Tedder said. “It’s very much an uptempo song and has a lot of gospel influence in it.”

Tedder revealed that last year he was inspired by gospel melodies and harmonies.

“For whatever reason that’s something that was resonating with me and I felt that I really wanted to shift as many of our songs into that vibe as possible,” he said.

In an interview with 92.3 NOW/New York the band revealed that a portion of the proceeds made from the sales of the single will be donated to Save the Children’s fall campaign Every Beat Matters. The program aims to reach children in need of lifesaving care before it’s too late. In partnership with OneRepublic, Every Beat Matters traveled the world and recorded actual heartbeats of children in need. OneRepublic used these to create an original song that you can download to help us save children around the world.

“It literally saves kids lives,” Tedder said. “We had this [song] idea and we didn’t finish it until Save the Children came along. We saw what the program was, the children and their heartbeats in Malawi and Guatemala, they recorded a bunch of kid’s heartbeats and we now incorporated it into the song.”

Tedder said their partnership with Save the Children was serendipitous and it actually helped him finish the lyrics to the song.

“Initially we just had the beginning of a song. Save the Children came along and it coincided with another thought that we had as a band which was on this album to really focus on doing stuff that actually served a greater purpose other than just putting out another song,” he said. “The process of trying to get hits or constantly keep up with the Joneses, after a certain point it’s like, ‘Wait. Why are we doing this?'”

“The Save the Children program added a serious amount of gravity to what we were doing and the amount of kids that we would be helping with donating proceeds from the sale of the single,” he continued. “It also helped me finish the lyrics. I actually had some kind of direction and weight.”

“Feel Again” hit radio airwaves yesterday. The song will be available for download August 27.